US Open star feared she’d die as Rublev in ’embarrassing’ meltdown

Dan Evans refused to retire at the US Open despite illness and a hip injury and insisted: “I don’t give a f*** if the scores says 6-0 6-0.”

The British No 5 played the longest match in US Open history in the first round.

And that gruelling affair caught up with him against Alex De Minaur.

He took a pill on court and needed treatment during the third set, ultimately losing 6-3 6-7 6-0 6-0. Sections of the crowd started to boo as Evans clearly struggled but he did not want to pull out.

Evans, 34, has only retired six times in 894 matches in his long career. And he insisted: “I wasn’t tempted to stop. I think it is about respect. I was relatively OK in the third set.

“It was pretty bemusing that they started to boo me when the irony was I was staying out there for them. And of course I respect Alex. I don’t think you should be pulling out in a Grand Slam.

“You finish the match. That’s just my way. And that’s how I was brought up. You stay till the end and shake hands. And he actually said, ‘Thanks for staying out there, respect’. And that’s not what I am doing it for. But people come into and pay and some are happy and some are not.

“After the second set, it reads: 6-0 6-0. But that’s by the by, for me, I couldn’t, couldn’t give a —- what if says of six love, six love. I stayed out there to fight until the last ball.”

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